TRANMERE ROVERS 5 V WEST HAM UNITED 2 Football League 1st Division , 4th December 1992

If ever a match encapsulated the magic of Friday night football at Prenton Park and proved Tranmere Rovers had both a team and a ground to fear, this one did as rovers simply swept away third place West Ham to go four points clear at the top of the first division and send out a resounding message to the rest of football. With goal highlights shown the following day on ITV’s Saint and the Greavie show, Rovers would soon discover there were less and less opponents prepared to sacrifice themselves each Friday night on the altar of Tranmere’s seemingly inexorable march towards the top flight. With goal highlights shown the following day on ITV’s Saints and Greevie show, Rovers would soon discover there were less and less opponents to sacrifice themselves each Friday night on the altar of Tranmere’s seemingly inexorable march towards top flight. If the ‘big time Charlies’ from Upton Park had any illusions before they certainly didn’t afterward. In the white hot atmosphere generated by near 12,000 crowd John Aldridge scored a superb hat-trick to take his tally for Rovers to an amazing 57 goals in 81 games. Not surprisingly, the master marksman opened the scoring midway through the 1st half, running past Alvin Martin and Julian Dicks onto a Neil McNab through pass to skirt the onrushing Ludek Miklosko and chip the ball into and ungarded net from a narrow angle. But within 4 minutes the Hammers were back on level terms thanks to a stunning 25 yards strike by Trevor Morley. With John King forced to replace the influential McNab at half time, Rovers simply stepped up a gear as they kicked towards a packed and noisy Cowshed who roared their approval as Kenny Irons strode through on the right and squeezed the ball passed miklosko from 15 yards within 3 minutes of the restart. After Clive Allan spurned a great chance to equalise again Aldridge made the Hammers pay for their wastefulness with a crucial 3rd on 71 minutes. Irons robbed Martain ‘Mad Dog’ Allan to send Aldridge clear yet again with a raking 60 yard pass and he clipped another superb finish past the helpless Miklosko. Rovers, though, just loved to put their fans through the ringers and Clive Allan finally escaped his marker Dave Higgins, to make it 3:2 and briefly Billy Bond’s team seemed as though they might get something from the match. Rover’s fans need not have been worried though. West Ham self destructed leaving Aldo with a simple tap in to complete his hat trick after Miklosko’s clearance was charged down by Chris Malkin, and then in injury time the gangly Rovers striker headed in a Morrissey cross to complete the Londoner’s misery. At the final whistle the ground bounced to chants of ‘ We are going up, say we are going up! All due credit though to the hammers’ band of travelling fans. They continued to celebrate during and after the game as if they had won, with a memorable and good humoured singing contest in the Clipper Public House with disproved the maxim that trouble is the inevitable consequence when Cockneys mix with northerners. Football as it should be both on and off the park. John Aldridge afterwards described the match and his hat-trick as the best moment of his career at Rovers (thus far) saying. ‘it was the kind of night you love being a footballer. The atmosphere was brilliant.